November 13, 2002

 

Culture

 

The Way-Out

 

the other press

TEGAN AND SARA...
AND SARA AND JAMIE

Trev ‘yer darn tootin’ Hargreaves
OP Contributer

As I wandered the crowd of last Saturday's sold out
show at Richard's on Richard's, it suddenly dawned
on me that I was completely surrounded by females.
It appears that Tegan and Sara have developed a fan-
base of almost exclusively women...or perhaps I
should say girls. I marvelled at how many fake ID's
must have been presented at the front entrance.
Granted, being surrounded by the fairer sex is the fan-
tasy of most men, but when said women are raised on
a vegan diet, Adbusters magazine, and Ani Defranco
there is good reason to feel more than a little uncom-
fortable. Am I generalizing? Yes, completely.

The opening band was The Way Out who recent-
ly have been playing all over town. The band is com-
prised of Gabe and Ezra Cipes on bass and guitar
respectively, with a stellar back-up band. These guys
have restored my faith in the local scene. It's nice to
see that Vancouver bands are finally getting past the
repetitive grunge-garage hybrid so common in this
city. This band blasts out a relaxed funk vibe that got
the crowd in a great mood.

Tegan and Sara hit the stage to uproarious
applause. They were their usual youthful fast-talking
selves and entertained the crowd between songs with
crazy road tales and sisterly stories of New Kids On
The Block concerts. The big change for this dynam-

Photos by Angela Blattmann

Ezra and Gabe Cipes

 

ic duo is that they have switched from the duel
acoustic coffee shop format and gone electric for the
new album. While this could have been a complete
disaster for the two tiny folkies, they pull it off mas-
terfully, It was fascinating to notice the subtle differ-
ences between the two songwriters as they took turns
singing their respective songs with the other singing
and playing back up. It was near impossible to avoid
having a great time as the girl's songs of youthful
romance and woe swirled around the room with
upbeat tempos. With their expensive shaggy haircuts
and bubbly demeanour, I couldn't help but notice
that these girls could take any lyrical content and
make it seem like a happy song. I'm just glad they
haven't graduated to taking on tough subject matter
yet. "This next snappy number is about Aushvitz"
would not have made for a better show!

Around the 6th song I ran into two girls I knew
from back in high school. We quickly hijacked a
couch in the upstairs lounge, commenced to collec-
tively chain-smoke and caught up on the last nine
years. Overall, it was a rather odd evening. Listening
to the youthful tales of Tegan and Sara while talking
about high school with Sara and Jamie—perhaps
there is something to these all-girl crowds after all?

Jamie, Sara and the ‘darn tootin’ guy